The Putin myth: why Russia is no economic superpower

Russia's GDP was smaller than that of Texas even before the latest and most lethal sanctions imposed by Washington. It has diminished further to Benelux proportions after the rouble's 10 per cent crash this week, the steepest fall since the late Nineties.

Upon this slender economic base, Vladimir Putin's Russia is posing as a world-class superpower, the new master of the Middle East, insisting on its "droit de regard" over the old Tsarist realms as if by natural right.

What is extraordinary is than anybody should believe in such posturing.